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Hello again! Not only am I shocked that I have blogged a record SIX times these past couple of weeks but that I am here again to share another food post with you. I had become so distanced from these type of posts that I was seriously considering a name change of this blog! Oh well, for now, let’s talk about what I made for dinner last night🙂

I had a bunch of random ingredients at home that I wanted to use up, plus I was making enchiladas for some friends of ours who just had a baby, so I bought some tortillas and a few other ingredients that I was missing.

I based my enchiladas on this recipe from Allrecipes.com. I find it to be a great site because the recipes are simple and easy to adapt to whatever ingredients you have on hand or whatever your dietary preferences are. I made enough adjustments and substitutions that I feel like I can safely post my version of the recipe here.

Chickpea veggie enchiladas (makes 8-10 enchiladas)

Ingredients

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 cups of cooked brown rice (got to use my steamer again!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 can of fire roasted tomatoes

1/4 cup Pace picante sauce (I used medium)

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (you may not want to use this much, this was an accident, I opened the wrong end of the container! But it wasn’t too hot for me)

1 small jar of salsa

Daiya shredded cheddar-style non-dairy cheese

Ground cilantro

A package or two of soft taco style whole wheat tortillas

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Cook chopped onion in olive oil over medium heat (use a few cloves of garlic too if you’d like, I couldn’t get my jar open!) until soft, then add chickpeas, tomatoes, picante sauce and spices. Reduce heat, simmer and stir until thickened. Add rice and let cook a few more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Warm tortillas on the stove or microwave (I warmed 5 at a time between 2 paper towels for 30 seconds)

Add a couple spoonfuls of chickpea-rice-veggie mixture into each tortilla and roll.

Place wrapped tortilla seam side down in the dish.

Once you place however many fit in your pan (6 fit in my 9×13 pan and I had some leftover filling so I could have made maybe 4 more) pour salsa on top and sprinkle Daiya cheese and ground cilantro on top as desired.

Here’s what it looked like before going into the oven!

I should have taken an “after” picture but I’m so out of the “food blogging” mentality that I honestly am surprised I took the one above. However, trust me when I say that these were delicious! Especially when topped with Tofutti non-dairy sour cream🙂

When I first went vegan, I wasn’t too interested in “replacement” products. You know, like soy cheese (and soy free too), cream “cheese” and so on. Tempeh Bacon. You catch my drift. Non-dairy ice cream was about as far as I would go.

But little by little, I have tried products such as those and mostly I’ve been impressed. I love Tofutti cream cheese and sour cream, which taste exactly the same as the real deal to me.

Some products have been better than others, that is for sure, but it has been fun to try all the various alternatives out there. Even more evidence that it is possible to eat a vegan diet without sacrificing all of your favorite foods (or condiments).

The latest product I have experimented with is Nayonaise, a mayo-like product from Nasoya, those tofu people:

I adored mayo when I was a kid. I ate a lot of bologna sandwiches with it smothered on the bread over the course of my childhood. That’s not exactly something I am proud of, but it is what it is.

Since I started my journey to health in 2007, mayonnaise has been a rarity, as it contains a lot of calories and fat, especially when served at a restaurant. At home, the fat free versions just didn’t taste as good. Then, when I went vegan and said no to eggs, mayo was out for good.

Until tonight when I decided to give the Nayonaise a shot on a Morningstar Farms Grilled Chik’n patty for dinner.

When I opened the container, I thought: “Wow. It smells like mayonnaise. The consistency is a little weird. Oh well, let’s see!”

I have to say, it has been a LONG time since I’ve had mayonnaise. However, the Nayonaise tasted pretty darn close to me. I can’t wait to try it on veggie burgers and in recipes (like potato salad) that would normally call for mayo.

Like I said, the consistency is different but the taste (and smell) are spot on. Do you use faux mayo? How?

Have you tried any other replacement products? Which ones were hits? Misses?

I did not care much for this vegan alfredo pasta I had one time. But that’s the only thing I can remember not loving. I’m sure there are others, but the good definitely outweighs the bad!

When I first went vegan, back in October of last year, I didn’t really have an interest in too many “fake” products that replaced what I might eat if I wasn’t vegan. But after having banana oats every day for a straight week, I decided I needed a different breakfast to change things up a bit.

It just so happens, I also needed this for a recipe too, so I said “Why not?”

Another thing I had been missing that I wasn’t really aware of were meatless breakfast patties. The Morningstar brand used to be my favorite (ooh, the maple flavor!) but unfortunately, they are not even close to being vegan and have an ingredients list a paragraph long.

These Yves patties were on sale at Whole Foods, so I decided to try them out (they still don’t have the best ingredients list but at least they got all the animal products out):

The result?

I could not tell a difference at all in the Tofutti cream cheese; it tasted just like regular cream cheese to me! I love that I was able to eat a bagel with cream cheese, not get a stomach ache from it and no animals were harmed in the process!😉

The meatless patties weren’t the best I’ve ever had but they definitely satisfied my craving. They are also low in sugar and contain some fiber and protein, which is good for satiety. I’m thinking I should try to make my own next time!

After I had lunch, I immediately started thinking about what I was going to have for dinner. I have a few random things at home to use up but since I have been drinking green monsters for breakfast this week, I’d really missed oats.

Problem solved – oats for dinner!

I made them special on the stovetop🙂 I used 1/2 cup oats with 1 cup of water, stirred in 1/2 cup pumpkin and added pumpkin pie spice + vanilla extract before serving it in the bowl and topping it with peanut butter and pumpkin butter.

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Since May 2008, I have been blogging about healthy eating and weight loss/maintenance. I lost 70 lbs in 2007 and now I'm working on maintaining that loss through healthy eating, exercise and a peaceful vegan lifestyle. Any questions? Email me at seesaraheat@gmail.com

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